Box Score

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Despite three hits from Cody Lovejoy and nine of 13 batters faced retired for Lucas Humpal, Texas State fell to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 7-3, to drop to 2-6 on the season Tuesday night. The Islanders improved to 4-5 on the year.
 
Lovejoy finished the day 3-for-5 with an RBI while Humpal tallied four strikeouts in 3.1 innings of work, the most of any Bobcat pitcher on the night. Shortstop Garrett Mattlage also represented himself well, finishing 2-for-3 with an RBI and two walks. Matt Smith, in his first action, manned third base and finished 2-for-4 along with catcher Tyler Pearson.
                        
Unfortunately, the nine Texas State hits came at the wrong times Tuesday as the Bobcats left 10 runners on base.
 
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi started strong after a scoreless first from Texas State, scoring three runs on four hits. The Islanders' Cody Stephens knocked a big double to the left field corner to move leadoff man Jordan Lee to third base. First baseman Jonathan Gonzales followed with a single through the left side to plate both base runners for an early 2-0 lead.
 
Cleanup hitter Brad Porras tried to keep the momentum going, but Texas State leftfielder Colby Targun ran the deep ball down for the first out of the bottom of the first. The Islanders put up one more run on a single from right fielder Kyle Danford, scoring Gonazales.
 
After a scoreless second, the Bobcats struck back with two runs. Pearson struck for the first Bobcat hit of the game when he led with a single up the middle. Centerfielder Morgan Mickan followed with a walk. After that, Lovejoy, playing right field, built upon his good hitting from the weekend when he knocked in Pearson on a single up the middle for Texas State's first run of the game.
 
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi pitcher Tim Keller walked Mattlage next to load the bases, and senior stalwart Andrews Stumph, serving as the designated hitter, took advantage. He knocked in senior counterpart Mickan with a sacrifice fly to left. Targun earned the second walk of the inning after that to load the bases again. With that, the Islanders made a change, moving to Trevor Belicek on the mound. He was able to stop Texas State with the final out of the inning.
 
In the bottom of the third, TAMUCC threatened again, moving the leadoff hitter of the inning, Stephens, to third base. Texas State went to last week's midweek starter, Andrew Boes, to put down the threat. He did, forcing a groundout to Mattlage at short.
 
Unfortunately, Boes ran into trouble in the fourth. He gave a leadoff walk, and then Danford singled for TAMUCC. After a strikeout, Boes hit shortstop Zach Taylor, the ninth hitter in the lineup. With bases loaded, Lee hit a pop up to shallow left field that no fielder could get to for a hit, scoring designated hitter Stafford Brantley.
 
Humpal received the next chance on the mound for Texas State. He forced a groundout to short, but with bases loaded the Islanders scored another run for a 5-2 TAMUCC lead. Lovejoy made a great running catch at the warning track to close out the inning.
 
Texas State threatened in the fifth, moving runners to second and third, but could not score. After holding the Islanders without a run in the bottom of the fifth, the Bobcats pushed a runner to third in the sixth, but again left a runner stranded.
 
Humpal and the Texas State defense retired six consecutive batters until pinch hitter Brad Lamberti reached base on an error. The Bobcats recovered and took down the next two batters.
 
In the seventh, Texas State started to make a move. After J.D. Stinnett was hit by a pitch, Lovejoy notched his third hit of the night. Mattlage followed with a single through the right side to score Stinnett and make it a two run deficit for the Bobcats, 5-3.
 
Texas State had another opportunity in the eighth inning with two runners on and no outs, but an unfortunate strikeout led to a double play when the Islanders caught Smith stealing. The next play was a groundout to end the top of the eighth.
 
Two unearned runs in the bottom of the eighth proved too much for the Bobcats to overcome.
 
Texas State is next in action Friday when the Bobcats host Northern Kentucky for a three-game series starting with a 6:30 p.m. game Friday at Bobcat Ballpark.